Wolf Prize in Chemistry
{{Short description|Award branch of the Wolf Prize}}
The Wolf Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Wolf Foundation in Israel. It is one of the six Wolf Prizes established by the Foundation and awarded since 1978; the others are in Agriculture, Mathematics, Medicine, Physics and Arts.
The Wolf Prize in Chemistry is considered to be one of the most prestigious international chemistry awards, behind only the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.{{cite web |url=https://ireg-observatory.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ireg-list-academic-awards.pdf |title=IREG List of International Academic Awards |author= |date=2019|publisher=IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence |access-date=26 February 2023}} Becoming a Wolf Prize laureate has been viewed as a potential precursor to receiving the Nobel Prize.{{cite web |url=https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/the-2022-chemistry-nobel-prize-goes-to-bioorthogonal-and-click-chemistry/4016259.article |title=The 2022 chemistry Nobel prize goes to bioorthogonal and click chemistry – as it happened |last=Walter |first=Patrick |date=5 October 2022 |website=Chemistry World |publisher=Royal Society of Chemistry |access-date=26 February 2023}} As of 2022, 12 awardees have subsequently become Nobel laureates; the most recent of those is Carolyn Bertozzi, who received the Nobel Prize the same year.
Laureates<ref>[https://wolffund.org.il/the-wolf-prize/#Laureates Wolf Prize Recipients in Chemistry]</ref>
class="wikitable" |
bgcolor="#ccccc"
! style="width:7%" |Year ! style="width:20%" | Name ! style="width:18%" | Nationality ! Citation |
1978
| {{AUT}} | for his work in bioorganic chemistry, application of new spectroscopic techniques, and his support of international cooperation. |
1979
| {{AUT}} | for his contributions to understanding the structure and behavior of natural and synthetic polymers. |
1980
| {{MEX}} | for his development of absolute rate theory and its imaginative applications to chemical and physical processes. |
1981
| {{GBR}} | for pioneering and fundamental contributions to synthetic transition metal chemistry, particularly transition metal hydrides and dinitrogen complexes. |
rowspan=2| 1982
| {{HUN}} / {{CAN}} | for his studies of chemical reactions in unprecedented detail by developing the infrared chemiluminescence technique, and for envisaging the chemical laser. |
George C. Pimentel
| {{USA}} | for development of matrix isolation spectroscopy and for the discovery of photodissociation lasers and chemical lasers. |
rowspan=3| 1983/4
| {{USA}} | for his pioneering work in the development and applications of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in chemistry. |
Harden M. McConnell
| {{USA}} | for his studies of the electronic structure of molecules through paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and for the introduction and biological applications of spin label techniques. |
John S. Waugh
| {{USA}} | for his fundamental theoretical and experimental contributions to high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in solids. |
1984/5
| {{CAN}} / {{USA}} | for his contributions to chemical kinetics, especially the theories of unimolecular reactions and electron transfer reactions. |
rowspan=2| 1986
| {{USA}} | for outstanding research on the synthesis of many highly complex natural products and the demonstration of novel ways of thinking about such syntheses. |
Albert Eschenmoser
| {{SUI}} | for outstanding research on the synthesis, stereochemistry and reaction mechanisms for formation of natural products, especially Vitamin-B12. |
1987
| David C. Phillips | {{GBR}} | for their contributions to protein X-ray crystallography and to the elucidation of structures of enzymes and their mechanisms of action. |
1988
| Joshua Jortner | {{ISR}} | for their incisive theoretical studies elucidating energy acquisition and disposal in molecular systems and mechanisms for dynamical selectivity and specificity. |
1989
| Duilio Arigoni | {{SUI}} | for their fundamental contributions to the elucidation of the mechanism of enzymic reactions and of the biosynthesis of natural products, in particular the pigments of life. |
1990
| colspan=3 align="left"| No award |
rowspan=2|1991
| {{SUI}} | for his revolutionary contributions to NMR spectroscopy, especially Fourier-transform and two-dimensional NMR |
Alexander Pines
| {{flag|Rhodesia}} / {{USA}} | for his revolutionary contributions to NMR spectroscopy, especially multiple-quantum and high-spin NMR. |
1992
| {{GBR}} | for his outstanding contributions to theoretical chemistry, particularly in developing effective and widely used modern quantum- chemical methods. |
1993
| {{EGY}} / {{USA}} | for pioneering the development of laser femtochemistry. Using lasers and molecular beams, femtochemistry has made it now possible to probe the evolution of chemical reactions as they actually happen in real time. |
1994/5
| Richard Lerner | {{USA}} | for developing catalytic antibodies, thus permitting the catalysis of chemical reactions considered impossible to achieve by classical chemical procedures. |
1995/6
| Gilbert Stork | {{USA}} | for designing and developing novel chemical reactions which have opened new avenues to the synthesis of complex molecules, particularly polysaccharides and many other biologically and medicinally important compounds. |
1996/7
| colspan=3 align="left"| No award |
1998
| Gerhard Ertl | {{GER}}; | for their outstanding contributions to the field of the surface science in general, and for their elucidation of fundamental mechanisms of heterogeneous catalytic reactions at single crystal surfaces in particular. |
1999
| {{CAN}} | for his fundamental and seminal contributions to the study and synthesis of oligosaccharides and to the elucidation of their role in molecular recognition in biological systems. |
2000
| {{USA}} | for opening up an entirely new phase of transition metal chemistry based on pairs and clusters of metal atoms directly linked by single or multiple bonds. |
2001
| Henri B. Kagan | {{FRA}} | for their pioneering, creative and crucial work in developing asymmetric catalysis for the synthesis of chiral molecules, greatly increasing mankind's ability to create new products of fundamental and practical importance. |
2002/3
| colspan=3 align="left"| No award |
2004
| {{USA}} | for pioneering work in bio-inorganic chemistry, unravelling novel principles of structure and long-range electron transfer in proteins. |
2005
| {{USA}} | for his ingenious applications of laser techniques, for identifying complex mechanisms in molecules, and their use in analytical chemistry. |
2006/7
| {{ISR}} | for ingenious structural discoveries of the ribosomal machinery of peptide-bond formation and the light-driven primary processes in photosynthesis. |
2008
| William E. Moerner | {{USA}} | for the ingenious creation of a new field of science, single molecule spectroscopy and electrochemistry, with impact at the nanoscopic regime, from the molecular and cellular domain to complex material systems. |
2009
| colspan=3 align="left"| No award |
2010
| colspan=3 align="left"| No award |
2011
| Stuart A. Rice | {{USA}}; | for the deep creative contributions to the chemical sciences in the field of synthesis, properties and an understanding of organic materials. |
rowspan=2| 2012
| {{USA}} | for his development of the colloidal inorganic nanocrystal as a building block of nanoscience and for making fundamental contributions to controlling the synthesis of these particles, to measuring and understanding their physical properties.[http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2012/01/12/alivisatos-wins-wolf-prize-in-chemistry Berkeley Lab] |
Charles M. Lieber
| {{USA}} | for his seminal contributions to nanochemistry and particularly the synthesis of single-crystalline semiconductor nanowires, characterization of the fundamental physical properties of nanowires, and their application to electronics, photonics and nanomedicine.[http://cmliris.harvard.edu Lieber Research Group] |
2013
| {{USA}} | for conceiving and implementing advances in polymer chemistry that provide both controlled drug-release systems and new biomaterials. |
2014
| {{flag|Taiwan}} / {{USA}} | for his numerous and original contributions to the development of innovative methods for the programmable and applied synthesis of complex oligosaccharides and glycol-proteins. |
2015
| colspan=3 align="left"| No award |
rowspan=2| 2016
| {{CYP}} / {{USA}} | for advancing the field of chemical synthesis to the extremes of molecular complexity, linking structure and function and expanding our dominion over the interface of chemistry, biology and medicine. |
Stuart Schreiber
| {{USA}} | for pioneering chemical insights into the logic of signal transduction and gene regulation that led to important, new therapeutics and for advancing chemical biology and medicine through the discovery of small-molecule probes. |
2017
| {{USA}} | for his discovery of the activation responses of carbon-hydrogen bonds in hydrocarbons by soluble organometallic complexes. |
rowspan=2| 2018
| {{JOR}} / {{USA}} | for pioneering reticular chemistry via metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs). |
Makoto Fujita
| {{JAP}} | for conceiving metal-directed assembly principles leading to large highly porous complexes.{{cite news |title=Makoto Fujita Receives The 2018 Wolf Prize In Chemistry|url=https://www.asianscientist.com/2018/02/topnews/makoto-fujita-2018-wolf-prize-chemistry/ |work=www.asianscientist.com}} |
2019
| Stephen L. Buchwald | {{USA}} | for pioneering the development of transition metal catalyzed procedures that are broadly applicable and allow carbon-heteroatom bonds of all sorts to be formed with previously unknown efficiency and precision.[http://www.wolffund.org.il/index.php?dir=site&page=winners&cs=959 Wolf Prize 2019 - Chemistry] |
2020
| colspan=3 align="left"| No award |
2021
| Leslie Leiserowitz | {{ISR}} | for collaboratively established the fundamental reciprocal influences of three-dimensional molecular structure upon structures of organic crystals.[https://wolffund.org.il/2021/02/09/leslie-leiserowitz/ Laureates 2021] |
2022
| Bonnie L. Bassler | {{USA}} | for their seminal contributions to understanding the chemistry of cellular communication and inventing chemical methodologies to study the role of carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins in such biological processes.[https://wolffund.org.il/2022/02/08/bonnie-l-bassler/ Wolf Prize 2022 - Chemistry] |
2023
| Chuan He | {{USA}} | for pioneering discoveries that illuminate the functions and pathological dysfunctions of RNA and proteins and for creating strategies to harness the capabilities of these biopolymers in new ways to ameliorate human diseases.[https://wolffund.org.il/home-page/ Wolf Prize 2023 - Chemistry] |
2024
| colspan=3 align="left"| No award |
2025
| {{GER}} | for quantifying reactive species in the gas phase to solve fundamental problems in catalysis.[https://wolffund.org.il/helmut-schwarz/ Laureate 2025]{{cite news |last1=Ganot |first1=Steven |title=Wolf Prize Honors Scientists and Innovators in Medicine, Physics, Architecture, and Chemistry |url=https://themedialine.org/mideast-daily-news/wolf-prize-honors-scientists-and-innovators-in-medicine-physics-architecture-and-chemistry/ |work=The Media Line |date=10 March 2025}} |
Laureates per country
Below is a chart of all laureates per country (updated to 2025 laureates). Some laureates are counted more than once if they have multiple citizenships.
class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; overflow:auto;border:2px solid; margin-left:0px; margin-right:auto;" |
style="background:#ececec; vertical-align:top;"
!Country !Number of laureates |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|United States}}
|38 |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|United Kingdom}}
|5 |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Israel}}
|5 |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Hungary}}
|3 |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Canada}}
|3 |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Switzerland}}
|3 |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Japan}}
|3 |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Austria}}
|2 |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Germany}}
|2 |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Mexico}}
|1 |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Egypt}}
|1 |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|France}}
|1 |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Poland}}
|1 |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Rhodesia}}
|1 |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Taiwan}}
|1 |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Jordan}}
|1 |
style="text-align:left;" |{{flag|Cyprus}}
|1 |
See also
Notes and references
{{Reflist|2}}
External links
- {{cite news | title=Huffingtonpost Israel-Wolf-Prizes 2012
| url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/10/placido-domingo-israel-wolf-prize_n_1196509.html | work=Huffington Post | date=10 January 2012}}
- {{cite web | title=Jerusalempost Israel-Wolf-Prizes 2013 | date=December 2010 |url=http://www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=298237}}
- {{cite web | title=Jerusalempost Israel-Wolf-Prizes 2014 |date=16 January 2014 |url=http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Wolf-Prize-2014-in-sciences-and-arts-goes-to-8-people-from-four-countries-338460}}
- [http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Weizmann-professor-among-7-Wolf-Prize-laureates-441464 Jerusalempost Israel-Wolf-Prizes 2016]
- [http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Wolf-Prize-to-be-awarded-to-eight-laureates-from-US-UK-and-Switzerland-477364 Jerusalempost Israel-Wolf-Prizes 2017]
- [http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Paul-McCartney-among-9-Wolf-Prize-recipients-542404 Jerusalempost Wolf-Prizes 2018]
- [https://www.facebook.com/ReuvenRivlin/videos/2152641934956397/ Wolf Prize 2019]
{{Wolf Prizes}}
{{Wolf Prize in Chemistry}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolf Prize In Chemistry}}
Category:Lists of Israeli award winners
Category:Awards established in 1978